In fields where in situ performance cannot be measured, ecological validity is difficult to estimate. Drawing on theory from social psychology and virtual reality, we argue that face validity can be a useful proxy for ecological validity. We provide illustrative examples of this relationship from work in search-and-rescue HRI, and conclude with some practical guidelines for the construction of immersive simulations in general.

In this exploratory study, participants taking cover from a simulated earthquake interacted with a search-and-rescue robot that assumed one of four different identities, distinguished by varying degrees of autonomy, and whose communications were either clear or noisy. Results showed that identities with low autonomy elicited greater hopefulness from participants than identities with high autonomy. Discussion focuses on design recommendations for search-and-rescue robots, and on the design of immersive HRI experiments.